Tradition of English Fridays

THE THIRD chief of the general staff of the Slovak Armed Forces, Milan Maxim has continued the tradition of the so-called English Fridays introduced by the former chief of the general staff Ľubomír Bulík. On Fridays all official meetings are held in English, the main working language of NATO.

THE THIRD chief of the general staff of the Slovak Armed Forces, Milan Maxim has continued the tradition of the so-called English Fridays introduced by the former chief of the general staff Ľubomír Bulík. On Fridays all official meetings are held in English, the main working language of NATO.

“Already when I was taking over this post I said that that I will link up to all positive what has been introduced in the armed forces and briefing in the English language is one of things, which are very useful,” Maxim said in early July as cited by the SITA newswire. “All the new military terminology, which soldiers serving in international environment bring-in, is automatically mirrored in our meetings, by which we increase the level of knowledge of all participants.”

Nevertheless, some changes to the tradition are planned. There are plans to change topics of the briefing with the aim of extending the number of participants communicating in English while the change of date is being pondered, too.

Bulík introduced the Friday briefings in 2005. His successor Peter Vojtek continued in this tradition between December 2011 and May 2014 before he was replaced by Maxim.